05/02/2020 - The French firm is selling Rithy Panh’s new film, a documentary produced by Catherine Dussart, which will enjoy its world premiere in competition in Berlin

One year after shining bright at the festival with François Ozon’s By the Grace of God [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: François Ozon
film profile], the French international sales firm Playtime is making a return to the Berlinale (whose 70^th edition will run from 20 February to 1 March) with yet another of its titles - Irradiated [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rithy Panh
film profile], by Rithy Panh - selected to participate in the competition, a fact which it intends to use to its advantage at the European Film Market.

As implied by the pitch, this documentary written by the French-Cambodian filmmaker in league with Agnès Sénémaud and Christophe Bataille follows the same lines as the director’s earlier works: "being a survivor isn’t something that can be expressed through words. You have to experience and move closer to this irradiation which might be without any cause, any knowledge and any possible protection. For the good of humankind, you have to experience and understand the various forms of evil, from trenches to atolls, from camps to silence. Evil irradiates. It reaches so far as future generations. But innocence lies beyond…

For the record, Rithy Panh has participated in Cannes’ Official Selection seven times: in competition with Rice People in 1994, out of competition with S-21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine in 2003 and Les artistes du théâtre brûlé in 2005, in the Un Certain Regard line-up with One Evening After the War in 1998 and The Missing Picture [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2013 (in the running for the Best Film award and nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar the following year), and in a Special Screening with Exile [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2016 and Duch, le maître des forges de l’enfer [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2011. The filmmaker’s previous opus, Graves Without A Name [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rithy Panh
film profile], opened Venice Days in 2018 and was Cambodia’s candidate for the Oscars in 2019.

Produced by Parisian firm Catherine Dussart Production (CDP), an unwavering partner of Rithy Panh’s alongside Playtime in the field of international sales, Irradiated (which sees Prum Mesa heading up cinematography) has been described by the Berlinale team as "an extreme and necessary film which has a visual and emotional impact of unyielding force".

Whilst in Berlin, the Playtime team composed of Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, François Yon, Sébastien Beffa and Frédérique Rouault will also be wagering on the Australian adventure film High Ground by Stephen Maxwell Johnson, which will have its world premiere out of competition within the Berlinale Special Gala programme.

Other works of note in Playtime’s line-up include My Donkey, My Lover and I [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Caroline Vignal, as well as a number of enticing titles in post-production, such as François Ozon’s Summer of 85 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Laurent Cantet’s Arthur Rambo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile], Three Mothers by Japan’s Naomi Kawase, Memory Box [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil J…
film profile] by Lebanon’s Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, the English-language feature Nobody Has to Know [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bouli Lanners
film profile] by Belgium’s Bouli Lanners and Tim Mielants and three first feature films by female directors: Libertad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Clara Roquet
film profile] by Spain’s Clara Roquet (the winner of the Arte Kino International Award at the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in San Sebastian, in 2018), Sans Soleil by Belgium’s Banu Akseki and Playlist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nine Antico
film profile] by France’s Nine Antico. Another film in production worth a mention is French-language work 15 Ways to Kill Your Neighbour [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Argentina’s Santiago Mitre (article).

(Translated from French)